FACTS ABOUT MALE SEXUAL ABUSE

FACT #2 – Most sexual abuse of boys is NOT perpetrated by homosexual males.

One of the most damaging, and profoundly mistaken, beliefs about male sexual abuse is that perpetrators of abuse against boys are usually gay males. This is false, and has been demonstrated as false in research for many years. This statement from the Gunderson National Child Protection Center clarifies:

Science and case management experience has shown us that most child molesters are heterosexual. Abuse is about power and control and is not anchored by sexual orientation. Dr. Gene Abel, a researcher in the field of sexual violence for over twenty-five years, wrote an article for the average parent in Redbook magazine to take the knowledge he gained in doing over 100 scientific articles to provide specific warning signs for parents and caregivers. In this article, he explicitly states that most cases of boys being molested are attributed to heterosexuals.

“…[M]ost men who molest little boys are not gay. Only 21 percent of the child molesters we studied who assault little boys were exclusively homosexual. Nearly 80 percent of the men who molested little boys were heterosexual or bisexual and most of these men were married and had children of their own.”(Abel, G. (1987, August). “The Child Abuser: How Can You Spot Him?,” Redbook, 100.)”

In addition, a growing body of research reports significant numbers of adolescent males report experiencing sexual abuse at the hands of females. In one recent 2014 study, Dr. Bryana French reported “[a] total of 43 percent of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience and of those, 95 percent said a female acquaintance was the aggressor. http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/03/coerced-sex.aspx